Hillary Clinton Calls Internet Freedom 'An Ongoing Struggle'

Hillary Clinton is one of the biggest supporters of an open internet. AP Hillary Clinton is one of the biggest supporters of an "Open Internet," the principle that people should be able to make their own choices on internet services and expression.

On Tuesday, Clinton reiterated her strong support for internet freedom during her speech at Dreamforce 2014, Salesforce's annual conference in San Francisco.

"When I was Secretary of State, it became clear to me that internet freedom, the opportunity to speak out and to associate with others around the globe was a core value in line with freedom of speech and what we have enshrined in our Bill of Rights," Clinton told Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, who moderated the Q&A session with her.

She said that she spent a lot of time and money to keep the internet open, but it's still an "on-going struggle," as individuals with "activist approaches and dissident opinions" continue to become the target of certain governments.

"We're in a struggle with more oppressive regimes around the world who want more control over the internet, who want to be able to shut it down at will, want to be able to interfere with people's freedoms," she said.

She mentioned there are many issues around the internet, such as the level of access, affordability, and the "digital gap" between women and men. But the key to solving these issues is to keep the internet open, she said, as she applauded President Obama's commitment to net neutrality from last week.

"This is a very rich area for a lot of work, and partnership between private and public sector is the only way to go forward on it," she said. "It's going to be an on-going debate, and I hope our side wins."